Four of five posts (almost there....)

1. Greetings from Philadelphia. I was born here. Lived in Philly till I was 12. Then we moved across the river to Cinnaminson, New Jersey, where I spent my most formative years :) Thanks to my sister Astina for this card!



2. Hiroshima Package - The Envelope. This is the envelope I mentioned in the previous post; it contains four cards from Hiroshima that my sister brought back from Japan. It is published by the Hiroshima Convention and Visitors' Bureau :)



3. Hiroshima Package - Card 3: Hiroshima Dreamination. My sister was fortunate enough to be present for this awesome, moving event during which paper lanterns (homemade, I believe) are set asail down the river in remberance of all those souls who died during the awful tragedy that was Hiroshima.



4. Hiroshima Package - Card 4: Dream Fireworks at Hiroshima Port. Another part of the anniversary celebration. (You will find cards 1 and 2 of this package in the former post...which I guess is BELOW this one on blogger. Another great blogger feature: if you want to follow my logic, you have to start at the bottom of the page and read UPwards.



5. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. The Ben Franklin statute. Franklin established the university in 1750; here, he's seen reading The Philadelphia Gazette, a magazine he began publishing in 1729, and which is still published by the university today! I was once here with my uncle--he was attending the university and took me, an impressionable, young high school student, to the library there with him for the day. I was duly impressed--and still love libraries to this day :)



6. Airports of Washington, DC. From a private trade; shows images from Dulles and Reagan National.



7. St. Petersburg, Florida. This is also my old homestead, where I lived for 20 years after we moved from Jersey/Philly. I drove by the dome many, many times...and went to the University of South Florida at St. Pete, which is located right on the water over by the small airport you see on the right in the background. The small planes used to zoom in right overtop of campus...I never really got used to it!



8. UCLA in LA. I got this from a private trade--it's not exactly what I meant by a University card, but at least it isn't a sports card. This is from the Conferences and Catering department--so it's likely a free ad card. But still, the only one I have from UCLA.



9. Akha Hilltribes, Thailand. This is either from a private trade or a round robin...I can't recall being this far removed from receiving it! But I love the image of the happy women in their native outfits....lovely!



10. Thailand. This is a nice multi-view; I especially like the map :)

Five of five posts! Finally!

I just found out this is not actually the "finally" post I thought it was. I apparently have another 10 or so cards that didn't get uploaded thanks to blogger's fantastic service--thanks again for even more work, blogger!

For this load, however:

1. Lapp girl in traditional costume, from my postcard pal Johanna in Finland.



2. Tatooing in the village fair, India. This comes from my penpal Ram. Fascinating and exotic image!



3. Hebron, Israel: The Tombs of Isaac and Rebecca. This comes from my penpal Leeba, who actually lives in an Israeli settlement--one that's often in the news due to the Arab-Israeli conflict! But that is another story.... For now, I have to think that these cannot possibly be the REAL tombs of the Israeli patriach and matriach...they must be for respect purposes or something! The tombs are HUGE!!!



4. "Experience Music Project" Seattle. This comes from my postcard pal Ruth. What an ugly, but interesting and photo-worthy building! :)



5. Le Grand Louvre, Paris. This comes from my pal Therese from Ireland! She's studying in Paris for a year and tells me that this is her absolute favorite card of all :) I can see why...this must be a "must-see" view if one should be lucky enough to visit Paris :)



6. Israel, multiview from Leeba.



7. Panorama of the Sword Lake, Hanoi, Vietnam. This awesome, exotic view came from a private trade.



8. Finnish funpark, Linnanmaki! Looks like fun, too :)



9. Itakeskus, Ostra centrum, Helsinki, Finland. This, from a private swap. I love the look of the mall....looks like a place where I'd enjoy shopping :)



10. Art card by patient in Finnish psychiatric hospital, in the mental health rehabilitation center. This comes from my penfriend Satu, who says it speaks of the power of coffee :) I agree! And I really like this unique card; it will be appreciated much in my collection :)

Ok...maybe THIS is the last post...

Have you seen the new Yahoo photo pages? Wow! I was loading my page of postcards available for trade so I could cut/paste the link for someone, and ... WOW! It looks just like Flickr now! I love Flickr...I just wish I could do like a photoblog there. Flickr is good except when you want to show TEXT with your images...which, unfortunately, is exactly what I want to do.

My husband just very kindly scanned another batch of postcards for me. I am going to try...to try...to upload them here with comments. But no guarantees.... Blogger only lets me do five images at a time. And to get them setup right I have to do it in html...then go in and enter the text afterwards.... It's really kind of a hassle.

So if you're reading this post NOW without first having looked at photos, it means I couldn't upload AGAIN for one reason or another.

So here goes....

This may be my last post...

Hello, Friends!

Do you know of a good photoblogging service? I am fed up to "HERE" with blogger. It only lets me upload 5 photos at a time...and that, even sporatically. So it is with much sadness that I tell you that I'll no longer be sharing my received postcards and stories about them. Unless, of course, I can find a photoblogging service that lets me:

1. Upload MANY images at once
2. Batch edit the titles and descriptions
3. Show the entire description once posted!

I don't think that's asking too much...if I were a programmer I would develop such a software and whip all these other guys out of business :) But I'm not. So all I can do is grumble and hope that someone, somewhere, finds or comes up with such a service.

I have tried all the big name services out there: flickr, typepad, wordpress (I think that's the name), smugmug, etc. I am even willing to pay for such a service!

So if you know of one, please let me know. I'd love to keep this blog alive, but not when blogger makes it so difficult.

Thanks for visiting...enjoy the cards I have posted in anycase :)

Renae :)

P.S. I'm still trading...so check out my cards available for trade! Newly added are cards from the Great Smoky Mountains...Cherokee, North Carolina....Cars, the Movie...Pirates of the Caribbean...and more!

Biggest postcard week ever!

This past week I have received more postcards than ever before in any week in comparison. It is so many that I while I had to cull down the amount I choose to post here, I still wound up with 36 cards--that is 36 cards to post! Needless to say, I cannot spend the time detailing each and every card, but I will title it if I can :)

I also want to say that I'm learning a truth about postcard collecting. To save postage, I have been doing more and more "large" trades--10 or more cards in an envelope with multiple traders. Yet when I trade like that, I find that I do not get all the interesting detail on the back of the cards. So while I asked for many of these cards because I like the image on the front, I know nothing about it. Sometimes, because I can't read the language, I can't even say what it is I am looking at! So I think for that reason, I would like to make many smaller-quantity swaps so as not to lose sight of what I enjoy about this hobby. It is not the quantity of cards that count...but the knowledge gleaned through them!

Anyway...so forgive the lack of detail here. I do have information on some of them but am not including it due to time. But, frankly, for most of them I simply have no detail! Thanks to everyone for trading :) I still love the cards :)

1. Map of Estonia showing counties



2. Map of Bulgaria, shaped like the country!



3. Kirkkonummi, Finland; near the border of the the old USSR.



4. Berlin, Potsdamer Platz (the most modern area in Berlin; before 1989 there was nothing here but the Wall!)



5. Hapag Llyod Express; Fokker F-100



6. Gesterby Museum in Kirkkonummi, Finland. (I want to point out that this is a lovely homemade card by Satu; she also did the other Kirkkonumi card above, and shared many fantastic details on both!)



7. Map of Zeeland, a providence in the Netherlands.



8. Skyscrapers in Jakarta, Indonesia (love this view!).



9. Art card, Lapland, which is the northernmost area of Finland...sparsely populated.



10. Map of Lahti (in Lapland), Finland...the Business City.



11. Mushrooms in the rain (from Finland, lovely image!).



12. Art card from Lapland.



13. Portugal: inspiration, go deeper.



14. Air New Zealand, Boeing 737-300.



15. Map of the Metro, Paris.



16. Paris, La Defense.



17. Hostel Dieu, Main Courtyard, the Tower (Paris, France).



18. Satellite array, Raisting, in the state of Bavaria, Germany. (I didn't know Germany had states till now! Also love this image with the white and blue, blue sky!)



19. Modern Art Museum, Kiasma, in Helsinki, Finland (learned from the sender that this is the most "modern" building in Helsinki...when it was built everyone hated it...but now they're used to it :).



20. Casino in Dortmund, Germany.



21. Dusseldorf on the Rhein; Airport.



22. Bergbaumusem in Bochum, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.



23. Barnegat Lighthouse, Barnegat, New Jersey. (Being an old Jersey-ite who frequented the shore, I love cards that remind me of those time :)



24. The Roman Baths, in Bath. According to the sender, these baths are still operational today...even after 2000 years!



25. The Schwebebahn Wuppertal, a suspension railway in Wuppertal, Germany. Pretty awesome!



26. Koln, Germany. Magnificant.



27. The Crayola Factory, Easton, Pennsylvania.



28. The Ark with Elephants. Kenya's Forest Lodge in the Aberdare Mountains.



29. Famous Finnish painting by Akseli Gallen-Kallenlan.



30. University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada (awesome!).



31. Powerpark in Harma, Finland.



32. HundertwasserHaus, Wein.



33. Lufthansa, Airbus A320-200.



34. Afrikaans Language Monument, Paarl, South Africa.



35. Tycho Brahe Planetarium, Denmark.



36. Art card by Dick Bruna, Amsterdam.